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Welcome to my blog. I document my life as a medical student and help you build your application to get accepted into medical school too. Hope you have a nice stay!
Battling self-doubt | Applying to medical school & imposter syndrome
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Hello everyone. Welcome to my first episode on this podcast. I don't really know what I'm doing here so just bear with me as we navigate through my first episode. I'm very excited to start this off. Today we are talking about self-doubt and how crippling it can be while you're applying to medical school and even the process of just thinking about applying to med school can be really difficult, and especially when you get into med school then you're stuck with imposter syndrome.
So the whole journey of doubting yourself and not feeling good enough can kind of be a long one unless you recognize it and deal with it early on. It's something I've struggled with my whole life. I remember as a child I would be so scared to do anything or participate in anything. I definitely had a shell around me in high school. I was not confident. I was pretty insecure, actually. So I never participated in anything or any activities unless I was really just forced to and my mom bought me this book called Fight Your Fears and Win which I never read because I got the book and I was like this is ridiculous.
And I didn't give it the time of day which I regret. So you know you really have to kind of take control of your life and force yourself to make positive changes, read the books which is exactly what I'm going to be talking about in this episode. So self-doubt can be anything really. You might not. You might not feel smart enough, cool enough, or you might not feel like you fit in. You might feel like you're never gonna get into medical school with either the grades you have the mcat score , the extracurriculars or you're in medical school and you feel like we'll never get the board score, no residency would want you, say you're going for something competitive like dermatology you might feel like your undeserving of that or your undeserving of being in medical school in the first place. So we are going to talk about five things that I've worked on that I feel like have really made actual positive changes in my life that you guys can also incorporate.
So the first thing I created a vision board earlier this summer in 2020 and this is something I had been wanting to create for a while after seeing some YouTube videos. I don't know if you guys know of Superwoman. But she created a vision board and she was talking about how things on her vision board were actually coming true.
And I thought wow that's a pretty cool concept like yeah I can cut up some magazines taped something together and hopefully my future visions will come true too. So I didn't get around to it until this year and I am so happy that I did it. Some of you guys might be thinking like oh it's August now the year is practically coming to an end. I'm not going to make a vision board now but I'll make it next year. Don't do that. That is a mechanism of your mind trying to push things off and procrastinate and make excuses for yourself. Make the vision board now and if you don't want to make a whole vision board it did take me a couple of hours to get through. You can always just post sticky notes on your wall, write it in your notebook, rip it out and tape it on your wall. I do that all the time despite having a vision board. It has been life changing to see my future goals on my wall every single day when I wake up in the morning while I'm studying throughout the day. And before I go to sleep at night because it really reinforces what I want from my life. And like sometimes you forget like you have bouts of motivation maybe once a day or once a week even once a month where you're like, Oh yeah I'm going to do this thing I'm gonna get it done but because you're not writing it down where you can see it every day you're gonna forget about it and a month or two will pass by and I like look at myself and I'm like oh I never did this thing or that thing and I'm exactly where I was two months ago and I feel sad about it. So that's my first suggestion. Write it down. Tape it to your wall. No one is gonna see it except for you.
The second thing that you should do is you should either read some books about getting over self doubt or listen to podcasts that motivate you. So two books that have amazing reviews that are great are the first one is un f yourself and the second one is by superwoman and it's called How to be a Boss, a Guide to Conquering Your Life.
Start picking up these books and spending time in your day reading them rather than watching Netflix or doing something that's not as productive to your growth and improvement or listen to a podcast on your way to work on your way to school go on a walk outside. I just listened to a podcast this morning because I needed motivation to finally record this podcast and not let little hangups like oh I don't have a podcast name yet or I don't have the perfect music for the intro and outro yet I needed to listen to this podcast to just get me motivated so I made my breakfast this morning which took like a good 30 to 40 minutes while listening to the podcast and it was a great use of my time. So that is the second thing I recommend that you guys do.
The third thing is find the motivation you need to just do it. I get a lot of messages every day saying hey like I'm 30 years old I think it's too late for me to apply to medical school. I've been out of academia for so long, I don't think I can do it or younger applicants or potential applicants saying hey like I'm not that smart I don't get great grades, I don't think I can go to it to get into medical school what do you think. And you guys are setting yourself up and showing me that you're not confident in your abilities or your future plans and yourself and you're portraying that image to me and my first thing always when I respond is you can do it.
Like who's telling you you can't do it. If you really do want this in your life and this is an actual goal that you have then no one is stopping you from actually obtaining that goal except for yourself and how you view yourself. So find the motivation you need to just get over all of that stuff. It's not going to build you up, it's only bringing you down and just do it. Open up your laptop, search up ways and how you can improve your grades or how you can get into medical school even with a low GPA. There are special masters programs that you can get enrolled to. There are so many other options that you have you can take off a few years between college and medical school to improve things. So just stop complaining or feeling bad for yourself or feeling like your age or your bad grades are stopping you. It's really just your mindset that is stopping you at this point and just conquer what you need to do. For me, I sometimes have hang ups about my workspace or my room if it's clean or messy. I've started to just like leave my house and go to school go to school to study to get over it especially when it's too hot and I can't study I go to school where it's air conditioned and I just do things now instead of complaining about them.And it's really like working out for me.
My third tip is stop caring about what others think. So no one cares if you're 30 years old in medical school or you're 18 years old your age does not matter. I have, we have a student in my class who is reaching 60 years old and she is still getting her medical degree because she's doing what she loves and what she's passionate about in her life and that's all that matters. Everyone respects her so much for that because a lot of people unfortunately do not have that mindset. You do not see that very often so other people's opinions or comments about your life are just reflections of their own insecurities. If people are saying things to you that are bringing you down. I've noticed that like people in my life will say things to either make me feel like I'm not good enough or smart enough and I realize that is just a reflection of their own insecurities. And that's really helped me like not let it affect me anymore.
The last tip that I have for you guys is self-love. Start liking yourself and feeling proud of yourself and if you don't like yourself then make positive changes in your life and start that journey towards self-improvement. It's not easy. It's still something we work towards every single day. I'm working towards it.
I have not reached it by any means but it's never too late and honestly it's worthless living a life it's not worth living a life you're not happy about.
So once you conquer self-love the opportunities are endless and you'll never doubt your abilities again. So you guys, we are reaching the end of the episode. That is it for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you've learned one little thing from this show I really appreciate it.
If you could leave a rating and review it means a lot to me and I will read them all. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes released every single week. See you in the next one.
So the whole journey of doubting yourself and not feeling good enough can kind of be a long one unless you recognize it and deal with it early on. It's something I've struggled with my whole life. I remember as a child I would be so scared to do anything or participate in anything. I definitely had a shell around me in high school. I was not confident. I was pretty insecure, actually. So I never participated in anything or any activities unless I was really just forced to and my mom bought me this book called Fight Your Fears and Win which I never read because I got the book and I was like this is ridiculous.
And I didn't give it the time of day which I regret. So you know you really have to kind of take control of your life and force yourself to make positive changes, read the books which is exactly what I'm going to be talking about in this episode. So self-doubt can be anything really. You might not. You might not feel smart enough, cool enough, or you might not feel like you fit in. You might feel like you're never gonna get into medical school with either the grades you have the mcat score , the extracurriculars or you're in medical school and you feel like we'll never get the board score, no residency would want you, say you're going for something competitive like dermatology you might feel like your undeserving of that or your undeserving of being in medical school in the first place. So we are going to talk about five things that I've worked on that I feel like have really made actual positive changes in my life that you guys can also incorporate.
So the first thing I created a vision board earlier this summer in 2020 and this is something I had been wanting to create for a while after seeing some YouTube videos. I don't know if you guys know of Superwoman. But she created a vision board and she was talking about how things on her vision board were actually coming true.
And I thought wow that's a pretty cool concept like yeah I can cut up some magazines taped something together and hopefully my future visions will come true too. So I didn't get around to it until this year and I am so happy that I did it. Some of you guys might be thinking like oh it's August now the year is practically coming to an end. I'm not going to make a vision board now but I'll make it next year. Don't do that. That is a mechanism of your mind trying to push things off and procrastinate and make excuses for yourself. Make the vision board now and if you don't want to make a whole vision board it did take me a couple of hours to get through. You can always just post sticky notes on your wall, write it in your notebook, rip it out and tape it on your wall. I do that all the time despite having a vision board. It has been life changing to see my future goals on my wall every single day when I wake up in the morning while I'm studying throughout the day. And before I go to sleep at night because it really reinforces what I want from my life. And like sometimes you forget like you have bouts of motivation maybe once a day or once a week even once a month where you're like, Oh yeah I'm going to do this thing I'm gonna get it done but because you're not writing it down where you can see it every day you're gonna forget about it and a month or two will pass by and I like look at myself and I'm like oh I never did this thing or that thing and I'm exactly where I was two months ago and I feel sad about it. So that's my first suggestion. Write it down. Tape it to your wall. No one is gonna see it except for you.
The second thing that you should do is you should either read some books about getting over self doubt or listen to podcasts that motivate you. So two books that have amazing reviews that are great are the first one is un f yourself and the second one is by superwoman and it's called How to be a Boss, a Guide to Conquering Your Life.
Start picking up these books and spending time in your day reading them rather than watching Netflix or doing something that's not as productive to your growth and improvement or listen to a podcast on your way to work on your way to school go on a walk outside. I just listened to a podcast this morning because I needed motivation to finally record this podcast and not let little hangups like oh I don't have a podcast name yet or I don't have the perfect music for the intro and outro yet I needed to listen to this podcast to just get me motivated so I made my breakfast this morning which took like a good 30 to 40 minutes while listening to the podcast and it was a great use of my time. So that is the second thing I recommend that you guys do.
The third thing is find the motivation you need to just do it. I get a lot of messages every day saying hey like I'm 30 years old I think it's too late for me to apply to medical school. I've been out of academia for so long, I don't think I can do it or younger applicants or potential applicants saying hey like I'm not that smart I don't get great grades, I don't think I can go to it to get into medical school what do you think. And you guys are setting yourself up and showing me that you're not confident in your abilities or your future plans and yourself and you're portraying that image to me and my first thing always when I respond is you can do it.
Like who's telling you you can't do it. If you really do want this in your life and this is an actual goal that you have then no one is stopping you from actually obtaining that goal except for yourself and how you view yourself. So find the motivation you need to just get over all of that stuff. It's not going to build you up, it's only bringing you down and just do it. Open up your laptop, search up ways and how you can improve your grades or how you can get into medical school even with a low GPA. There are special masters programs that you can get enrolled to. There are so many other options that you have you can take off a few years between college and medical school to improve things. So just stop complaining or feeling bad for yourself or feeling like your age or your bad grades are stopping you. It's really just your mindset that is stopping you at this point and just conquer what you need to do. For me, I sometimes have hang ups about my workspace or my room if it's clean or messy. I've started to just like leave my house and go to school go to school to study to get over it especially when it's too hot and I can't study I go to school where it's air conditioned and I just do things now instead of complaining about them.And it's really like working out for me.
My third tip is stop caring about what others think. So no one cares if you're 30 years old in medical school or you're 18 years old your age does not matter. I have, we have a student in my class who is reaching 60 years old and she is still getting her medical degree because she's doing what she loves and what she's passionate about in her life and that's all that matters. Everyone respects her so much for that because a lot of people unfortunately do not have that mindset. You do not see that very often so other people's opinions or comments about your life are just reflections of their own insecurities. If people are saying things to you that are bringing you down. I've noticed that like people in my life will say things to either make me feel like I'm not good enough or smart enough and I realize that is just a reflection of their own insecurities. And that's really helped me like not let it affect me anymore.
The last tip that I have for you guys is self-love. Start liking yourself and feeling proud of yourself and if you don't like yourself then make positive changes in your life and start that journey towards self-improvement. It's not easy. It's still something we work towards every single day. I'm working towards it.
I have not reached it by any means but it's never too late and honestly it's worthless living a life it's not worth living a life you're not happy about.
So once you conquer self-love the opportunities are endless and you'll never doubt your abilities again. So you guys, we are reaching the end of the episode. That is it for today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you've learned one little thing from this show I really appreciate it.
If you could leave a rating and review it means a lot to me and I will read them all. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes released every single week. See you in the next one.